Reestablishing a Habit

What I Learned In School Today: It is so much easier to fall out of a routine than to start a habit.

Blogging is tough. There are a lot of challenges that come with writing consistently and putting your ideas out into the world. What should I write about? Am I qualified to write about anything? Will anyone read it? What if they do read it? What will they think? Will they agree with me? If the disagree, what will they say or think? What if they only notice the grammatical error on line six of paragraph two? What if a co-worker reads it? A supervisor? A parent? A student?

Clearly the anxiety can be debilitating when it comes to sharing ideas publically, but I do believe writing, Tweeting, blogging, and communicating publically is critical in education today, particularly from leaders. With that in mind, I began this blog titled What I Learned In School Today at the start of this school year. My plan was to post something for every day I spent with students in school for the entire academic year. The posts would be brief, simple, and easy to read. I would not over analyze or stress over spelling and grammar, but instead strived for a more conversational, comfortable, relaxed style. I got off to a good start, but only made it until December.

On one hand I was proud of myself. I had never written regularly like that, so doing so regularly for several months was a step in the right direction. On the other hand, I was disappointed that I stopped. As mid-December hit, a combination of holiday fun and a nasty stomach bug hit my family, causing me to put the blog aside. That was immediately followed by the winter break and when I returned to school in January, the habit of writing each day had been broken. Holidays, illness, and vacation are not excused for stopping the blog, but that was my hurdle that I wasn’t able to clear.

As I begin to write again, I still worry about my content, my audience (if there is an audience), and the quality of my writing. I admire those who blog regularly and write eloquently - I was certainly not an english teacher - while always coming up with interesting thoughts to share with the world. More than anything, I admire those who have the drive and dedication to stick to a self imposed quota and always manage to share something on their blogs. I know I want to blog effectively and I have ideas and experiences to share, but now comes the hard part: I have to stick to it, make writing a priority, and recreate a habit. I don’t know if I will post daily, weekly, or somewhere in between, but I plan to keep at it and encourage you to do the same. Here we go!